Baby awakes from coma after mother's hug

SHREWSBURY, England, July 27 (UPI) -- A newborn boy in Britain who suffered seizures due to a brain infection awoke from a coma after his mother gave him a cuddle, his parents said.

Adam Cheshire was born at the Royal Shrewsbury Hospital in England, weighing 7 pounds, 3 ounces, but his mother, Charlotte Cheshire, noticed he was making a strange grunting noise and wouldn't eat so the baby was taken for tests, The Daily Telegraph reported.

Adam was placed in neonatal intensive care. He had collapsed and stopped breathing, his organs began to shut down and he was having constant seizures.

He was placed on ventilator to breathe and kept in an induced coma, Charlotte Cheshire said.

Three days later, Adam was diagnosed with Group B Strep Meningitis -- a disease pregnant women can transmit the to their newborns at birth.

"Group B Strep is very common in the United Kingdom with 1-in-4 women carriers. It can be quickly and easily detected with a swab test between 35 to 37 weeks of pregnancy and treated with antibiotics during labor but the National Health Service currently don't test for it," Charlotte Cheshire told The Telegraph. "By sharing my story, I hope more women know about GBS and can therefore prevent going through experiences like ours."

Shortly after the baby awoke from the coma, Charlotte Cheshire spent as much as 12 hours a day sitting in a rocking chair holding her child -- providing so-called kangaroo care, in which mothers function as an incubator to keep babies warm, stimulated and fed, Charlotte Cheshire said.

Adam Cheshire has a hearing impairment, but has been well enough to go home, his mother said.

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